Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/51

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of leisure; story-telling is one of the social arts of leisure and pleasure; besides, stories record significant occurrences, which should be given the emphasis of time. His initial manner should give hint of the spirit of the particular story he is to tell. The first phrase, "There were five-and-twenty tin soldiers," sounds the playful martial spirit of Hans Andersen's "Brave Tin Soldier;" the story-teller echoes it in martial bearing and in martial swing and ring in his speech, in, of course, the playful manner of a story about a little toy soldier. Mother-love broods through the story of "The Wolf and the Seven Kids;" the story-teller suggests, in voice and eyes and fostering posture, its loving pride and anxiety. Should the story-teller begin in rather obvious make-believe-matter-of-fact style, his eyes hinting fun, the children will chuckle in delighted anticipation of a nonsense or a humorous story. The wholly impassive manner adopted by some story-tellers in telling "funny" stories to adult audiences will not do with children. The adult's enjoyment consists largely in his ability to remake as fun what the teller is representing as sober fact. Children, because of their lack of knowledge and experience, need more leading. Stories like "The Three Bears" correspond in spirit to nursery rhymes like "This little pig went to market;" they